I was visiting this most lovely flower exhibition at the Garden By The Bay and learned some interesting facts. Mention tulips and the first thing that pops into your mind is windmills & Holland. Image Credit: Unesco
But do you know that Tulip flowers originate from Kazakhstan. In the 16th century, part of Kazakhstan was conquered by the mighty Ottoman Empire. The leader of the Ottoman Empire then was Sultan Suleiman the First, also known as Suleiman the Magnificent.
The tulip grows wild in the valleys of the Tian Shan mountains of Kazakhstan (pictured above). The conquerors were so impressed with it’s beauty & brought them back to Ottoman (present-day Turkey) and planted them in the gardens of the affluent people in the Ottoman Empire.
In the 16th century, Constantinople (now Istanbul), was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and well known for its commerce and culture. The city had the most beautiful gardens where many people would come to admire the flowers and every year when the tulips were in bloom, the Sultan would throw a big party. The tulip became very popular and was a symbol of power & wealth and Ottoman sultans wore a tulip on their turban. It’s Turkish name was ‘laleh’, meaning ‘Flower of God’, because the letters forming the name of the flower coincided with the letters forming the name of God – Allah.
Sultan Suleiman used to give tulips to important dignitaries, and this included the Viennese ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq. It was he who brought the flower to Europe. When the tulip first arrived in Europe, nobody knew the name of this exotic beautiful flower. It was called by various names including red lilly & lilionarcisus.
Then in 1554, it was mentioned as “tulipam” in a letter written by Ogier. Story has it that, while traveling along blooming tulip fields, Ogier saw the flowers for the first time & stopped to admire them. The workers in the field were all wearing turbans, which they decorated with tulip blooms. So when Ogier pointed to the head of a worker asking what it was, the interpreter replied “Tuliband”, meaning the head dress, and not the flower on the turban. This is how the misunderstanding started.
After being mentioned by Ogier in the written correspondence, the name “tulipam” started being officially used for the flower. It was also transformed into the scientific Latin “tulipa” and then became ‘tulip’ in the English language.
While in Austria, Ogier gave some of the tulip bulbs to his good friend Clusius. Clusius at that time was managing the gardens of the Emperor of Austria. In 1593 Clusius became a professor at Leiden University and head of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden. In this botanical garden the first tulips were planted in Holland. The tulips were very scarce and therefore very expensive. Clusius didn’t want to sell or share his knowledge and just continued cultivating it as his hobby. Unfortunately, some of his beautiful collection was subsequently stolen.
Then in the 17th century (1634-1637) the famous Tulip Mania happened. There was a growing demand for tulips and prices were increasing quickly. It is widely viewed as the world’s first financial asset bubble. A bubble is a significant increase in an asset's price that is not reflected in its value. The price increases because people think they can sell the asset for a profit, not because it's actually valuable.
In 1634, as the fever grew, tulip prices soared. At the peak of the bubble, tulips were said to be sold for approximately 10,000 guilders, equal to the value of a mansion on the Amsterdam Grand Canal. According to how the story is popularly told, people from all walks of life risked money they needed so they could buy bulbs in the belief they could sell them for a profit.
Some even borrowed money to buy tulip bulbs. Bulbs were sold and resold before they were even harvested. People thought the price could only go up. That is, until an auction failed to attract any bids in 1637, and prices fell overnight. The crash supposedly bankrupted many of those who'd bought their tulip bulbs on credit. Many faced ruin, and the Dutch economy supposedly crashed.
The reality was less sexy. Nobody actually went bankrupt and the Dutch economy wasn't really affected. The people who lost money were mostly wealthy merchants who could afford to do so. Extreme prices were rare & only 37 people actually spent more than 300 guilders on a tulip bulb. The crash wasn't due to uninformed buyers speculating on a price increase, but more likely prices fell because of concerns about oversupply and the unsustainable nature of the market plus only a relatively small number of people were buying tulips.
Has this piqued your curiosity to go check out these beautiful turbans in the Garden By The Bay?
